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Old 09-11-2008, 11:29 AM
 
Location: Boston,MA (born and raised and WANT OUT!!!!)
11 posts, read 59,353 times
Reputation: 14

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Quote:
Originally Posted by kritterz78 View Post
People from MA are incredibly rude!!! Not to mention self centered, unfriendly, ignorant, and very pushy! I have been to many states and find most to be friendly....but not MA. I am FINALLY leaning here in a couple of weeks. It is over rated, expensive, has terrible driving conditions, road rage, natural gas leaks and home explosions everywhere you go. Oh and lets not forget the poor dogs being electricuted by live wires in the streets that the electric company can not figure out how to fix. Public transportation is smelly and filthy. There is no parking anywhere. People are too stupid to read the dont walk signs and run in front of moving cars....even with strollers and their dogs!!! The taxes, health care costs, home costs and just the cost of living in general is crazy...especially considering the quality of life is so poor. I have spent a lot of time in CA, CO, UT, AZ, NV, FL, CT, NH, RI, and others and you will find something you dislikie anywhere....but nothing as out of control and hostile as MA. At least in other states people smile, say thank, dont tell you to "F" off and run you off the road! I think a BIG reason why a lot of the people I personally know here in MA love it so much is because they are all too close minded to venture to another part of the country...God forbid something be better than their so called precious MA!!!! So them staying here.....this is all they know, and so they just go with it and think this is the way to live!

You took the words out of my mouth...and I was born/raised in Boston and I am not afraid to say I agree with you!!! This is why I want out at this point in my life. My good friends moved away years ago and would never come back here for obvious reasons!!

 
Old 09-11-2008, 12:32 PM
 
Location: Maine
2,272 posts, read 6,644,262 times
Reputation: 2563
Not every one from MA is rude. I drove down to Boston from Maine last week, and was in line to go through the toll at the Tobin Bridge. Some guy wanted in, and I let him. When I got to the toll I found out he'd paid for me. That was really nice!
 
Old 09-11-2008, 05:12 PM
 
2,280 posts, read 4,482,365 times
Reputation: 1851
Quote:
Originally Posted by fashionablecowboy View Post
I haven't been to many states where I have experienced such a rude vibe. Massachusetts, however, certainly feels like one of them. I could never grasp how horrible and self-centered the drivers were even when there was NO traffic! I found many people to be cold and unpersonable. Although, some people were helpful.. sure, some were very genuine, but NO ONE WOULD EVER start a conversation about their personal life, unless you were a long-time friend, relative, or direct family member.

I am not alone in my complaint against Mass. Ask most people from Carolinas, Texas, or other "friendlier" and warmer environments. What do you think causes this massive perception about people from Massachusetts? Is it the cold winters?.. For you Mass residents: How many times a day does a random person greet you with a large smile and ask you how your day was?

MA is a very safe and educated area so why are people so mean!?
This comment - that people in Massachusetts are rude, cold, inconsiderate drivers, etc. - has shown up in various forms in this Massachusetts forum.

I lived in the Boston area for 25 years and now reside in NY. My parents are from Cambridge and so my relatives are from around that general area.

Maybe I am out of touch, but it has always seemed to me that people from other regions such as the midwest, the south, the mid-atlantic states, etc. just don't get it. They don't get that eastern Massachusetts' culture was heavily influenced by the Yankee and the Irish. I must say that this is changing rapidly: Now you meet all these people who hail from another part of the country. IMO, even native Italian-American Bostonians were affected by the Yankee and Irish influence. Why? Because the two ethnic groups that "got lucky' were the Yankees and the Irish. They held the reigns of power. People tend to want to ape those in power, I am guessing.

And it is not that the Irish and the Yankees are cold. You'd think the Irish would be all hail fellow well met, right? Well, yes and no. In an Irish pub, yes, but they, and the English/Yankee types (a small minority, the Yankees, now), grew up themselves in a Boston culture in which you protect, support your own.

Massachusetts has probably only 25% Irish Americans now, but the cultural influence has not totally waned.

My own mother, who was Irish/Yankee in ancestry, could recall, growing up, how the Yankee neighbors in her Cambridge neighborhood would never think of having a chat with an Irish or Irish American person. After all, the Irish were the servants (as was my paternal grandmother)!

So, there was a built in tendency for the Irish and the Yankees to stand off from one another and then the Irish were standing above (or wanted to!) the Italian immigrants, who spoke English as a second lalnguage and were not as familiar as the Irish with how to run the political machine, etc.

People will write and say this is all irrelevant and out of date. It is getting to be more out of date now, within the past few decades, but the competitive, suspicious of outsider attitude remains strong, IMO. It will take some time for this stuff to go away.
 
Old 09-12-2008, 08:15 AM
 
Location: Amherst, MA
3,636 posts, read 9,726,445 times
Reputation: 1761
Wow, you should come to Florida then... Talk about rude and mean people... This place is LOADED with them... Cannot wait till I get back HOME to MA in a few weeks...

Quote:
Originally Posted by mb1197 View Post
How ironic...My husband and I were born and raised in MA and then moved to NC 5 years ago (job related move). We have had a difficult time making friends down here to be honest. Southern hospitality is not all that it's cracked up to be. Part of what we've found is that the locals already have their friends and tend not to open up to outsiders, especially if you're from the northeast. I've encountered many rude southerners while being approached and welcomed by those who have moved here from somewhere else. I miss MA quite a bit, but there is good and bad wherever you go so I try to focus on the positive.
 
Old 09-14-2008, 08:01 AM
 
Location: Dorchester
2,605 posts, read 4,825,873 times
Reputation: 1090
Give Martha Anne a stuffed animal!
 
Old 09-14-2008, 01:41 PM
 
21 posts, read 98,225 times
Reputation: 20
I found Massachusetts people to be very warm, direct, and sociable. I thought that they were some of the nicest people I had ever encountered.

I think Southerners and Mid-Westerners think that we East Coasters are too direct, rude, and tactless because they don't understand us. The thing is, once you get to know an East Coaster, they will probably give you the shirt off their backs...until then, you're just part of the scenery. I prefer this to the passive-aggressive Southerners and Mid-Westerners, especially since they tend to keep that attitude even when you become friends with them, and I have been stabbed in the back by almost every Michigander I know. The Southerners I know sometimes lie to me just to avoid a simple argument.
 
Old 09-15-2008, 03:54 PM
 
Location: looking for a place to belong
106 posts, read 680,144 times
Reputation: 94
ivy creeping, are you related to me? Having lived in FL and MI amongst other places I would have to agree. I have talked to many people from around the country and can't wait to move to MA. The people there just seem more open-minded and friendly. If telling someone the truth is being rude then may I be rude for the rest of my life.
 
Old 09-15-2008, 04:34 PM
 
2,781 posts, read 7,182,267 times
Reputation: 873
Although I'm a lifelong Sox fan, Bostonians have to be the most rude, cold, unfriendly and ruthless people I've ever met. When I was at BU (for only a semester, thank god), I was cursed off by a Bostonian jogger--A JOGGER! All for wearing a Villanova shirt?

Ugh. Still, go Sox!
 
Old 09-15-2008, 07:55 PM
 
Location: South
303 posts, read 1,380,775 times
Reputation: 173
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivycreeping View Post
I found Massachusetts people to be very warm, direct, and sociable. I thought that they were some of the nicest people I had ever encountered.

I think Southerners and Mid-Westerners think that we East Coasters are too direct, rude, and tactless because they don't understand us. The thing is, once you get to know an East Coaster, they will probably give you the shirt off their backs...until then, you're just part of the scenery. I prefer this to the passive-aggressive Southerners and Mid-Westerners, especially since they tend to keep that attitude even when you become friends with them, and I have been stabbed in the back by almost every Michigander I know. The Southerners I know sometimes lie to me just to avoid a simple argument.
I agree with your first statement 100%. During my time spent in Boston, everyone was so friendly, forthcoming (they approached me... yes even on the street!), easy to make friends with, ext.

I have found Southerns to be very rude. They are the people that if your not born and breed "down south" don't expect to make friends with them. Don't bother doing anything any other way expect the "Southern way". I think the South is the most closed minded.
 
Old 09-15-2008, 09:05 PM
 
50 posts, read 121,161 times
Reputation: 52
Default Big 5 personality traits by region

Here's a link to a map of the big 5 personality traits by state.
Gene Expression: Personality variation by region (USA)

Southern New England is low in agreeableness (i.e. they are low in trust and social cooperation.), high in neuroticism, and high in openess to experience. This fits the stereotype: nasty and rude, but open to creative endeavors.
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